An increasing familiarity of power system engineers with frequency domain techniques has motivated the search for stability criteria for power systems that could be applied in the frequency domain. Following the advent of phase plane methods for second -order systems and the second method of Lyapunov, the Popov method gained popularity. This investigation attempts to apply an extension of Popov's method to determine the transient stability of a single machine infinite bus system under a large transient disturbance. Circle criterion provides simple rules for examining both the linear and non-linear portions of the power system in the frequency domain and for arriving at conditions to be imposed on these portions in order to ensure absolute stability. An upper and lower bound is established for the non-linear gain by treating the system's mathematical model as a set of non-linear algebraic equations and limiting values of gains are estimated by solving these equations. A numerical example is solved to illustrate the method of approach.